Environment

Environment

Pioneering a Renewable Future
The Fair Head Tidal Energy Park project will play a key role in supporting the government of Northern Ireland to meet its renewable energy and climate change. Specifically Northern Ireland is committed to support overall UK targets to reduce CO2 emissions by 34% by 2020 and to generate at least 15% of all energy from renewable sources by 2020.
When complete the project will generate enough electricity to power 70,000 homes, which is nearly 10% of all the households in Northern Ireland, and make a contribution to UK CO2 emmision targets.

Committed to Sustainability
Fair Head Tidal Energy Park Limited is committed to sustainability. Although the project when operational will offer considerable environmental benefits, we are also cognisant of the need to ensure that the project will have minimal negative impacts on the local environment during construction and operation. Please browse through this section to find out about our work in this area and the measures that we are taking to protect the local environment.

Scoping

All the consents and licenses required for the tidal turbines and associated export cable to landfall will be administered by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) – Marine Division. In order to obtain these, a detailed environmental impact assessment (EIA) process was undertaken that started with pre-screening, formal scoping, a series of baseline surveys and then an assessment of possible impacts.

Following feedback from the initial communication to around 130 stakeholders a formal scoping document which will set out the scope and methods by which it is proposed to undertake the environmental impact assessment (EIA) was issued at the end of November 2013.

EIA

As part of the planning and licensing process for the Fair Head Tidal Energy Park, we are required to carry out and report on a series of environmental studies, collectively known as an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The findings are summarised in the Environmental Statement, which accompanies our planning application.
The EIA process, which is required under EU law, involved an in-depth assessment of the Fair Head Tidal Energy Park’s effects on the environment.

We considered the possible impacts of both our construction activities and the tidal park’s operational phase on a wide range of environmental factors. Some of the key areas, which are considered in an EIA of this nature are:-